Biennale of Chianciano 2011

Hello dear friends and new visitors,

I recently returned after being selected to participate in the 2011 Biennale of Chianciano Terme (Italy, September 17-24).

It was a great honour to be selected to participate in this prestigious event and an even greater honour to have been awarded the "Leonardo Award for Applied Arts Second Prize" among so much international talent.

It was a marvellous and unforgettable experience and there are sure to be many new things happening soon.
To watch an interview with me and my work at the Biennale please feel free to click below...


I'll be back soon with more news and updates.
Until next time,
Peace and Love

A Fresh New Look

Hello there! I'm Kaylee Hinrichs, an artist/designer/craftsperson, and I blog over at Birch & Bees. I'm popping in on Daniel's Blog while he's off showing his art in Italy, to tell you a bit about Daniel's new web design. I hope you enjoy! 

Designed by Kaylee Hinrichs

I'm quite proud to say that Daniel's new blog design was created by myself. Daniel had a brochure, business cards, and fliers designed by another talented graphic designer. My challenge was design his website, blog, and shop around that established design. Daniel has given me the seal of approval for the blog design, and I'm quite happy he likes it.

Daniel's new web design will expand to a home page, a portfolio page, and a shopping page. The idea is to create a simple, functional, and seamless experience while looking at Daniel's websites. I'm going to be completing the rest of the designs and the whole project should be completed by 2012 at the latest.

When Daniel returns from Italy, we'll be finishing up the last touches on his blog and making everything complete!

More exciting things to come in the future! 

Peace and Love,

Kaylee

Roseus

It's Kaylee's Birthday today!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAYLEE!!!
In celebration of her big day I decided to look through the good old rock pile and make her something pretty.

"Roseus" (front), Daniel Icaza, 2011, Fine Silver, Sterling Silver, Rose Quartz

I took a glance through the collection and was immediately drawn to this very smooth and soft piece of rose quartz. It reminded me of her and I felt it was very representative of my special girl.

"Roseus" (back), Daniel Icaza, 2011, Fine Silver, Sterling Silver, Rose Quartz

Another spontaneous creation this ring almost didn't turn out the way I had envisioned it in my mind, but in the end I was able to make it work.

"Roseus" (side), Daniel Icaza, 2011, Fine Silver, Sterling Silver, Rose Quartz

I have been having a lot of fun playing around with my rock collection and will hopefully be able to make some more rocky pieces when I have the time.
For now I get to go have some fun with my sweetie! and give her her presents! (I sure hope she likes them)

Until next time,
Peace and Love

Essence

This is a new ring I made.
I decided I wanted to start playing around with some BIG stones and see what I could come up with...

"Essence" (front), Daniel Icaza, 2011, Fine Silver, Sterling Silver, Leopard Jasper, Patina 

I "borrowed" this beautiful stone from my grandmother's rock collection several months ago. I had fallen in love with it and knew I wanted to do something with it but was unsure of what at the time.

"Essence" (side), Daniel Icaza, 2011, Fine Silver, Sterling Silver, Leopard Jasper, Patina

As usual, this piece did not have much planning and was created very spontaneously, fortunately I am quite content with the result this time. Not all experiments have such successful outcomes.

"Essence" (back), Daniel Icaza, 2011, Fine Silver, Sterling Silver, Leopard Jasper, Patina

I'm not sure what I will make next but I doubt I will have much time to make a whole lot more with the up coming trip. (Italy in September)

"Essence" (model), Daniel Icaza, 2011, Fine Silver, Sterling Silver, Leopard Jasper, Patina

I have managed to make a few other pieces recently and I will hopefully be sharing some pictures of those pieces soon as well; we shall see how things go.

Until next time,
Peace and Love

Bronze Casting

Last weekend I managed to play around with some bronze and my casting machine... this is what I ended up with.

Bronze Spiral Castings

Although I am more accustomed to working with a centrifuge, I currently use a vacuum caster in my studio. Since I haven't had as much practice with this type of machine, I am still working out all of the "kinks" and becoming more familiarized with the vacuum casting unit.  

I had a pretty good success rate this time around, but as the old saying goes "practice makes perfect"...  

I am not sure what will become of these spiral castings, but I am sure inspiration will strike at some point and these castings will turn into little treasure/s eventually.

The last batch of castings I made in this style turned into some pretty nifty pins, we shall simply have to wait and see what these "new spirals" turn into... 

Previous bronze castings turned into pins, CLICK HERE to read more about these pins and a few others.

Until inspiration strikes, I have a few more projects to work on and some more things to share, so I promise I will be back soon.

Until next time,

Peace and Love